Add 2 Cups of Sweet Memories

Despite what you read about my bean disaster, I actually love cooking. I haven’t always. My poor mom tried many times to get me in the kitchen with her but I had zero interest. Then one day I discovered this thing called a cooking show. I was instantly hooked. Watching how the ingredients and flavors and textures were all created in so many different ways. It still fascinates me.

I love cooking, but baking is my jam. (Sorry, had to.) This likely explains why my underwear size resembles a parachute. Not really, but it is necessary to test your baked goods approximately 2 to 56 times for taste and quality purposes.

After I had kids, they were in the kitchen with me daily. Even when they just sat in a bouncy chair smiling and drooling at me, I was putting on a cooking show for them. “This is an onion. We need to chop it up and saute with the peppers.” I also wore them on my back while I cooked, letting them smell and see everything. They mostly took a nap, but they were still learning.

Now they are old enough to help, so I let them. Is it harder? Much. Is it messy? Absolutely. Are they learning about food, math, measuring and cooking skills while having fun? Yes!

We got too many blueberries last week. They were on sale, so who can resist? I knew the shriveled berry days were upon us, so blueberry muffins for everyone. I snapped a few pictures of our baking. I’m not a photographer and I had egg yolk and flour on my hands as I held my camera phone, so please, no judging.

I try to get out everything we need before they even get to the kitchen. It keeps them away from the flour and cracking eggs while I’m searching for other things. As you can see, this doesn’t always help.

How can I get mad though? I’d secretly love to play with food, it’s squishy and powdery and there are so many textures! They’ll have to refrain soon enough, so feel away my miniature explorers.

Honestly, it’s hard for me to let go of the reigns. I tend to like things a certain way and let’s face it, kids just want to cram, plop and throw things into a cupcake tin. I give reminders and examples of how to spoon it in, then sit back and watch the show.

In the end, it’s always a fun and messy time that I hope they’ll remember. There’s also the bonus yummy muffin. They all turned out gorgeous!

Fine, I’ll be honest. We can’t be friends if I’m not. This was the lone decent looking muffin. The rest of the cooling rack was muffin mayhem. I took them out of the tin too soon. They smelled amazing, I couldn’t wait, you know you’ve done it too.

Well, I have a muffin to devour, so grab your little kitchen helpers and go make some messy, beautiful, sweet memories!

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Published by Mommy With a Side of Me

I'm a coffee drinking, daily praying, ocean loving, husband kissing, always learning mommy. I write for fun. I share in case there's anyone out there than can relate, because it's always more fun when we don't feel alone. I mean, we're all in this together just doing the best we can!
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